PS 

1541 
.P64 

\9lA- 



■I 



■lE 









^■^ 

^ 









A^^ 






^'--.< 









.-^^ 






xf>°< 







'^A V*' 



^^^ 



1 ^ • V 









C- 



o ^ , 



% 






^^ 






■K^^ 



.> <>?. 



.y>. o 



* D S ^ ^\%^ 






"oo^ 



^N^^ 



o5 -U 















•^o^ 



^^\ 



" X 



%: 



>^ >^ 



'/ 



A>- _ %^ 














.:^ - .: ^/ ^ v^ 





THE SINGLE HOUND 



THE SINGLE HOUND 

POEMS OF A LIFETIME 



BY 



EMILY DICKINSON 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HER NIECE 

MARTHA DICKINSON BIANCHI 



N ON-REFER T 




aoWVAD ' QIS 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1915 



6^' 



Copyright, 1914, 
By Martha Dickinson Biancht. 

All rights reserved 

'^0 hAjJ^^UjL^ 'WaJr tM>^^ 



S. J. Pabkhill & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

THE romantic friendship of my Aunt Emily 
Dickinson and her ''Sister Sue" extended 
from girlhood until death. The first poem, 
dated, was sent in 1848, and probably the last 
word Aunt Emily ever wrote was her reply 
to a message from my Mother, "My answer is 
an unmitigated Yes, Sue." During the last 
year of my Mother's Hfe she read and re-read 
these poems, and innumerable letters, with in- 
creasing indecision as to the final disposition of 
her treasury. It eventually devolved upon me 
to choose between burning them or giving them 
to the lovers of my Aunt's pecuHar genius. 

My hesitation was finally influenced by a note 
written in their early twenties, which I quote. 

Dear Sue: 

I hke your praise because I know it knows. 
If I could make you and Austin proud some day 
a long way off, 'twould give me taller feet. 

Emily. 



VI PREFACE. 

This is my inspiration for a volume, offered 
as a memorial to the love of these ''Dear, dead 
Women." 

Also, it seemed but fitting to reveal a phase 
of Aunt Emily known only to us who dwelt 
with her behind the hedge; the fascinating, 
wilful woman, hghtning and fragrance in one. 

I am told she is taught in colleges as a rare 
strange being; a weird recluse, eating her heart 
out in morbid and unhappy longing, or a victim 
of unsatisfied passion; I have heard her called 
"an epigrammatic Walt Whitman" by a noted 
lecturer, and only recently a distinguished 
foreign critic pronounced her ''the greatest 
mystic America has produced — second only 
to Ralph Waldo Emerson." 

But to her niece and nephews she was of 
fairy hneage, akin to the frost on the nursery 
pane in Winter or the humming bird of Midsum- 
mer; the realization of our vivid fancy, the con- 
federate in every contraband desire, the very 
Spirit of the "Never, Never Land." 

She adored us, her three Child-Lovers, talked 
to us as if we were grown up and our opinions 



PREFACE. VU 

of importance, our secrets portentous, though 
always keeping herself our playmate with such 
art that she remains in my memory as a httle 
girl herself. Once, when my brother Ned, as 
a child, stood looking up at the evening star, he 
said wistfully, ''I want to go up there. Aunt 
Emily." ''All right," she cried, ''Go get your 
horse and buggy and we'll go tonight!" Often 
quoting afterward his grave rebuke of her 
levity — "Aunt Emily, — you can't go up 
there in a horse and buggy!" 

When we were happy she added her crumb, 
when we were ill all she had was ours, were we 
grieved, her indignation was hot against whoever 
or whatever had wounded us. I thought of 
her as the avenging angel then, her eyes smoul- 
dered so gloriously at our wrongs. One other 
charm was unique to her; her way of flitting, 
Hke a shadow upon the hillside, a motion known 
to no other mortal. In the midst of one of our 
Eden-hours, she would fly at the sound of an 
intruder and was not — only the tick of the old 
clock left for our companioning. I was usually 
left with her while both famihes went to church 



VUl PREFACE. 

on Sabbath mornings and well remember being 
escorted by her down to the cool hoarding cellar"^ 
past the wine closet to a mysterious cupboard 
of her own, where she dealt me such lawless 
cake and other goodies, that even a child of 
four knew it for excess, sure to be followed by 
disaster later in the day. There was an unreal 
abandon about it all such as thrills the prodigal- 
ity of dreaming. 

As we grew older her wit was our unconscious 
standard of others, her pitiless directness of 
thought our revelation, while her sweetness was 
hke nothing but that of her own favorite jas- 
mine flowers. Indeed she resembled the Cape 
Jasmine more than any mortal being. They two 
were the whitest Sisters, or flowers, Nature 
ever bore. 

Once let us get to her,— past what Mr. Henry 
James calls ''an archaic Irish servant," past 
our other faithful but prejudiced Aunt Lavinia, 
who gave us a plain cookey and advised us to 
''run home," — once within the forbidden pre- 
cincts of the ''front part" of the old mansion, 
we had found our South- West passage and were 



PREFACE. ix 

transported, obstinate, oblivious. To water 
her plants with her tiny watering pot, to help 
her ice a loaf of plum cake for her Father's 
supper, to watch her check off the rich dark cara- 
mels she unfailingly kept on hand for us, to share 
her wickedness in skirmishing to avoid out- 
siders, or to connive in her intrigue to out- 
wit the cat of perpetual unpopularity in her 
esteem, — what other joys could drag us from 
these? 

She put more excitement into the event of a 
dead fly than her neighbors got from a journey 
by stage-coach to Boston. If art is '' exaggeration 
apropos,^^ as Merimee claims, she was an in- 
comparable artist at hfe. 

There was nothing forbidden us by her, in 
spite of which Hcense we were as shy of troub- 
ling her, as gentle in our play with her, as if she 
had been Hans Andersen's Httle Snow Maiden 
and might melt before our eyes if misunder- 
stood. 

Fascination was her element. It was my 
brother Ned, borne home against his will, 
screaming ''I want a rich! I will see my Aunt 



X PREFACE. 

Emily! I will have a rich!" who provided that 
dear Villain with a synonym for her own terms 
with Life. ''A rich" was the desire of her heart, 
*'a rich" was her instinctive claim, and she 
would not compromise. 

The poems here included were v/ritten on any 
chance shp of paper, sometimes the old plaid 
Quadrille, sometimes a gilt-edged sheet with a 
Paris mark, often a random scrap of commercial 
note from her Father's law ofhce. Each of 
these is folded over, addressed merely ''Sue," 
and sent by the first available hand. For though 
they lived side by side with only a wide green 
lawn between, days and even weeks slipped 
by sometimes without their actual meeting. 
My Mother was blessedly busy in her home and 
Aunt Emily's light across the snow in the Winter 
gloaming, or burning late when she remained up 
all night, to protect her plants from chill, was 
often a mute greeting between them supple- 
mented only by their written messages. There 
must have been a lure for the almost cloistered 
soul in the warmth of her only brother Austin's 
youthful home, and the radiant atmosphere of 



PREFACE. XI 

my Mother with her three children growing 
up about her. ^'Only Woman in the World," 
'' Avalanche of Sun," "Sister of Ophir," she calls 
her. In these earher days Aunt Emily often 
came over, most frequently in the evening, and 
always when Mr. Bowles, Mrs. Anthon of 
London, or some such cherished guest, was here. 
She played brilHantly upon the piano, and 
travestied the descriptive pieces popular at 
that period with as much skill as wit. One 
improvisation which she called the Devil was, 
by tradition, unparalleled. She had no idea of 
the passing of time when at the height of these 
froUcs and not until my revered Grandfather 
appeared with his lantern, would the revel break 
off. Him she adored, feared, made fun of, and 
obeyed. "If Father is asleep on the sofa the 
house is full, though it were empty otherwise!" 
was one of her famihar exclamations. It could 
never be said of her, as she said of a prosaic 
friend, "He has the facts but not the phos- 
phorescence of learning!" One evening when 
Dr. and Mrs. Holland had arrived unexpectedly 
to pass the night, having driven over from North- 



XU PREFACE. 



hampton in the Autumn dusk, my Grand- 
mother, anxious for their every comfort, offered 
one solicitous suggestion after another, until 
Aunt Emily, always exasperated by repetition, 
cried — ^'0 Mrs. Holland, don't you want to 
hear me say the Lord's prayer? Shouldn't 
you Hke me to repeat the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence? Shan't I recite the Ten Command- 
ments?" 

It was in this mood that she once put four 
superfluous kittens on the fire-shovel and softly 
dropped them into the first convenient jar the 
cellar offered, her family being in church — her 
chosen time for iniquity. This especial jar 
happened to be full of pickle brine. The sequel 
was very awful; occurring when the austere 
Judge Otis P. Lord of Salem was visiting my 
Grandfather, and as in all such emergencies 
of detection she fled to her own room and turned 
the key; holding reproach at bay until she chose 
to come out and ignore it. In her innocent love 
of mystery and intrigue Aunt Emily reminds 
one of Stevenson. She would have played at 
''lantern bearers" with him, and given the 



PREFACE. xui 

stealthy countersign under her breath, as no 
other hving urchin! 

She was "eternally preoccupied with death" 
as any of Pater's giant Florentines, but though 
the supernatural had the supreme hold on her 
imagination and conjecture, every lesser mystery 
was a panic and an ecstasy. If she could 
contrive to outwit domestic vigilance and 
smuggle a box of fresh-laid eggs to my Mother, 
on the sly, it savored to her of piracy and brig- 
andage. She was averse to surveillance of 
every description and took pains to elude it 
in these little traffics of her heart as in the enig- 
mas of her Being. *' Give me hberty or give me 
death — but if you can, give me liberty!" was 
her frequent cry. She had a keen scent for 
the meanings hid beneath the goodly outside 
of diplomacy and watched for developments in 
home and foreign policies with surprising 
acumen. The Winter she was at Willard's, dur- 
ing her Father's Congressional career, she is 
said to have astonished his political friends by 
her insight and created quite a sensation by 
her wit, though the only story I recall now was 



XIV PREFACE. 

of her saying to a prim old Chief Justice of the 
Supremest sort, when the plum pudding on fire 
was offered — "Oh Sir, may one eat of hell fire 
with impunity, here?" 

Physically timid at the least approach to a 
crisis in the day's event, her mind dared earth 
and heaven. That apocrypha and apocalypse 
met in her, explains her tendency so often mis- 
taken for blasphemy by the superficial analyst. 

The advance and retreat of her thought, her 
transition from arch to demure, from elfin 
to angehc, from soaring to drowning, her in- 
escapable sense of tragedy, her inimitable 
perception of comedy, her breathless reverence 
and unabashed invasion upon the intimate 
affairs of Deity and hearsay of the Bible, made 
her a comrade to mettle inspiration and dazzle 
rivalry. Unhke the dullard, brilHancy was 
no effort for her. She revelled in the wings of 
her mind, — I had almost said the fins too, — 
so universal was her identification with every 
form of fife and element of being. She usually 
liked men better than women because they 
were more stimulating. I can see her yet, stand- 



PREFACE. XV 

ing in the spacious upper hall a Summer after- 
noon, finger on lip, and hear her say, as the 
feminine callers took their departure — ''Listen! 
Hear them kiss, the traitors!" To most women 
she was a provoking puzzle. To her, in turn, 
most women were a form of triviality to be 
escaped when feasible. 

But stupidity had no sex with her and I 
equally well remember her spying down upon 
a stranger sent to call upon her by a mutual 
friend, and dismissing him unreceived after 
one glance from her window, remarking — 
"His face is as handsome and as meaningless 
as the full moon." At another time she called 
me to peep at a new Professor recently come 
to the college, saying — ''Look dear, he is pretty 
as a cloth Pink!" her mouth curHng in deri- 
sion as she uttered it and one hand motioning 
as if to throw the flower away. She had a dra- 
matic way of throwing up her hands at the 
climax of a story or to punctuate one of her own 
flashes. It was entirely spontaneous, her spirit 
seemed merely playing through her body as the 
Aurora borealis through darkness. And since 



XVI PREFACE. 



there is no portrait of Aunt Emily, may I be 
pardoned if I try to give an idea of her external 
Kkeness? It has been often told that she wore 
white exclusively. She has said herself, in 
one of her letters to an inquisitive friend who 
had never seen her and importuned for a hint 
of her outward self, — that her eyes were 
the color of the sherry left in the glass by him 
to whom she wrote. Her hair was of that same 
warm bronze-chestnut hue that Titian immor- 
taUzed, and she wore it parted on her brow and 
low in her neck, but always half covered by a 
velvet snood of the same tint; such as the 
Venetian painters loved to add as a final grace 
to the portraits of their beloved and beautiful 
women. Her cheek was like the petal of the 
jasmine, a velvety white never touched by a 
hint of color. Her red lips parted over very 
regular Httle teeth like the squirrels' and it was 
the rather long upper hp that gave to the mouth 
its asceticism, and betrayed the monastic 
tendency in her, of which she was probably 
quite unaware. 
If this combines nature and art and mys- 



PREFACE. xvu 

ticism in one, too bewilderingly to reproduce 
any definite impression, it is the fault of that 
face, — as animate in my memory as it is still in 
my dreams. 

In spite of an innate austerity of the senses, 
my Aunt had lovers, like Browning's roses — 
"all the way" — to the end; men of varied pro- 
fession and attainment who wrote to her and 
came to see her, and whose letters she burned 
with a chivalry not all of them requited in kind. 
"Sister Sue" was her confidante and ally, 
from whose lips we heard many a hot or quaint 
tale when time had made them no perfidy. 
One of these in which we most deHghted was 
of how Aunt Emily as a young lady, having 
been decorously driven to a funeral in Hadley, 
in the family barouche lined with cream-colored 
broadcloth, ran from the grave with a dashing 
cousin from Worcester, via a skittish blacJ: 
horse and worldly buggy, capping her infamy 
by returning through Sunderland and being 
in her room with the door locked when the 
family got home. 

Nothing would be more dehcious to me than 



xviii PREFACE. 



to repeat by name the list of those whom she 
bewitched. It included college boys, tutors, law 
students, the brothers of her girl friends, — sev- 
eral times their affianced bridegrooms even; 
and then the maturer friendships, — literary, 
Platonic, Plutonic; passages varying in inten- 
sity, and at least one passionate attachment 
whose tragedy was due to the integrity of the 
Lovers, who scrupled to take their bhss at 
another's cost. 

She was not daily-bread. She was star-dust. 
Her solitude made her and was part of her. 
Taken from her distant sky she must have 
become a creature as different as fallen meteor 
from pulsing star. One may ask of the Sphinx, 
if Hfe would not have been dearer to her, lived 
as other women lived it? To have been, in 
essence, more as other women were? Or if, 
in so doing and so being, she would have missed 
that inordinate compulsion, that inquisitive 
comprehension that made her Emily Dick- 
inson? It is to ask again the old riddle of genius 
against every-day happiness. Had hfe or 
love been able to dissuade her from that ''eter- 



PREFACE. XIX 

nal preoccupation with death" which thralled 
her — if she could have chosen — you urge, 
still unconvinced? But I feel that she could and 
did, and that nothing could have compensated 
her for the forfeit of that "single hound," her 
"own Identity." 

Martha Dickinson Bianchi. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Preface v 

Dedicatory Poem, One Sister have I in our house . i 

I. 

I. Adventure most unto itself 3 

II. The Soul that hath a Guest 4 

III. Except the smaller size, no Lives are round . . 5 

IV. Fame is a fickle food 6 

V. The right to perish might be thought .... 7 

VI. Peril as a possession 8 

VII. When Etna basks and purrs 9 

VIII. Reverse cannot befall that fine Prosperity . . 10 

IX. To be alive is power 11 

X. Witchcraft has not a pedigree 12 

XL Exhilaration is the Breeze 13 

XII. No romance sold unto 14 

XIII. If what we could were what we would .... 15 

XIV. Perception of an Object costs 16 

XV. No other can reduce 17 

XVI. The blunder is to estimate 18 

XVII. My Wheel is in the dark 19 

XVIII. There is another Loneliness 20 

XIX. So gay a flower bereaved the mind 21 

XX. Glory is that bright tragic thing 22 



xxu 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXMII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 



XXXW. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XLII. 

XLIII. 

XLIV. 

XLV. 

XLVI. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

The missing All prevented me 23 

His mind, of man a secret makes .... 24 

The suburbs of a secret 25 

The difference between despair 26 

There is a solitude of space . 27 

The props assist the house 28 

The gleam of an heroic act 29 

Of Death the sharpest function 30 

DowTi Time's quaint stream 31 

I bet with every Wind that blew ;^2 

The Future never spoke 33 

Two lengths has every day 34 

The Soul's superior instants 35 

II. 

Nature is what we see 36 

Ah Teneriffe! Retreating ^lountain! ... 37 

She died at play 38 

"Morning" means "Milking" to the Farmer 39 

A little madness in the Spring 40 

I can't tell you, but you feel it 41 

Some Days retired from the rest 43 

Like ]Men and Women shadows walk ... 44 

The butterfly obtains 45 

Beauty crowds me till I die 46 

We spy the Forests and the Hills 47 

I never told the buried gold 48 

The largest fire ever known 50 



CONTENTS. ' xxiii 

Page 

XL VII. Bloom upon the Mountain, stated 51 

XL VIII. March is the month of expectation 53 

XLIX. The Duties of the Wind are few 54 

L. The Winds drew off like hungry dogs .... 55 

LI. I think that the root of the Wind is Water . 56 

LII. So, from the mould 57 

LIII. The long sigh of the Frog 58 

LIV. A cap of lead across the sky 59 

LV. I send two Sunsets 60 

LVI. Of this is Day composed 61 

LVn. The Hills erect their purple heads 62 

LVIII. Lightly stepped a yeUow star 63 

LIX. The Moon upon her fluent route 64 

LX. Like some old fashioned miracle 65 

LXI. Glowing is her Bonnet 66 

LXII. Forever cherished be the tree 67 

LXIII. The Ones that disappeared are back .... 68 

LXIV. Those final Creatures, — who they are ... 69 

LXV. Summer begins to have the look 70 

LXVI. A prompt, executive Bird is the Jay .... 71 

LXVII. Like brooms of steel 72 

LXVIII. These are the days that Reindeer love ... 73 

LXIX. Follow wise Orion 74 

LXX. In Winter, in my room 75 

III. 

LXXI. Not any sunny tone 77 

LXXII. For Death, — or rather 78 



XXIV 

LXXIII. 

LXXIV. 

LXXV. 

LXXVI. 

LXXVII. 

LXXVIII. 

LXXIX. 

LXXX. 

LXXXI. 

LXXXII. 

LXXXIII. 

LXXXIV. 

LXXXV. 

LXXXVI. 

LXXXVII. 

LXXXVIII. 

LXXIX. 

XC. 

XCI. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Dropped into the Ether Acre! 79 

This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies 80 

'Twas comfort in her dying room .... 81 

Too cold is this 82 

I watched her face to see which way ... 83 

Today or this noon 84 

I see thee better in the dark 85 



Low at my problem bending . . 
If pain for peace prepares . . . 

I fit for them 

Not one by Heaven defrauded stay 
The feet of people walking home 
We should not mind so small a flower 
To the staunch Dust we safe commit thee 

Her "Last Poems" 

Immured in Heaven ! What a Cell ! 
I 'm thinking of that other mom . 
The overtakelessness of those . . 
The Look of Thee, what is it like 



86 

87 
88 
89 
90 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 

97 
98 



IV. 

XCIL The Devil, had he fidcHty 99 

XCIII. Papa above! Regard a Mouse .... 100 

XCIV. Not when we know loi 

XCV. Elijah's wagon knew no thill 103 

XCVL " Remember me " implored the Thief . . 103 

XCVIL To this apartment deep 104 

XCVIIL " Sown in dishonor? " 105 



CONTENTS. XXV 

Page 

XCIX. Who is it seeks my pillow nights? io6 

C. His Cheek is his Biographer 107 

CI. "Heavenly Father," take to thee 108 

CII. The sweets of Pillage can be known .... 109 

CHI. A little over Jordan no 

CIV. Dust is the only secret in 

CV. Ambition cannot find him 112 

CVI. Eden is that old fashioned House 113 

CVII. Candor, my tepid Friend 114 

CVIIL Speech is a symptom of affection 115 

CIX. Who were " the Father and the Son " ... 116 



V. 

ex. That Love is all there is 118 

CXI. The luxury to apprehend 119 

CXIL The Sea said "Come" to the Brook . ... 120 

CXIII. All I may, if small 121 

CXIV. Love reckons by itself alone 122 

CXV. The inundation of the Spring 123 

CXVI. No Autumn's intercepting chill 124 

CXVIL Volcanoes be in Sicily 125 

CXVIII. Distance is not the realm of Fox 126 

CXIX. The treason of an accent 127 

CXX. How destitute is he 128 

CXXI. Crisis is sweet and, set the Heart 129 

CXXII. To tell the beauty would decrease 130 

CXXIII. To love thee, year by year 131 

CXXIV. I showed her heights she never saw .... 132 



XXVI CONTENTS. 

Page 

CXXV. On my volcano grows the grass .... 133 

CXXVI. If I could tell how glad I was 134 

CXXVII. Her Grace is aU she has 135 

CXXVIII. No matter where the Saints abide . . . 136 

CXXIX. To see her is a picture 137 

CXXX. So set its sun in thee 138 

CXXXI, Had this one day not been 139 

CXXXII. That she forgot me was the least ... 140 

CXXXIII. The incidents of Love 141 

CXXXIV. Just so, Jesus raps — He does not weary 142 

CXXXV. Safe Despair it is that raves 143 

CXXXVI. The Face we choose to miss 144 

CXXXVII. Of so divine a loss 145 

CXXXVni. The healed Heart shows its shallow scar 146 

CXXXIX. To pile like Thunder to its close .... 147 

CXL. The Stars are old, that stood for me . . 148 

CXLI. All circumstances are the frame .... 149 

CXLII. I did not reach thee 150 



TO SUE. 



/^NE Sister have I in our house, 

And one a hedge away 
There^s only one recorded 
But both belong to me. 

One came the way that I came, 
And wore my last yearns gown, ' 
The other, as a bird her nest, 
Builded our hearts among. 

She did not sing as we did. 
It was a different tune, 
Herself to her a music — 
As Bumble-bee of June. 

Today is far from childhood, 
But up and down the hills 
I held her hand the tighter. 
Which shortened all the miles. 



TO SUE. 

And still her hum the years among 
Deceives the Butterfly, 
Still in her eye the Violets lie 
Mouldered this many May. 

I spilt the dew hut took the morn, 
I chose this single Star 
From out the wide night's numbers, 
Sue — J or evermore! 

— Emilie. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



ADVENTURE most unto itself 
The Soul condemned to be; 
Attended by a Single Hound — 
Its own Identity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



II. 



THE Soul that hath a Guest, 
Doth seldom go abroad, 
Diviner Crowd at home 
Obliterate the need, 
And courtesy forbid 
A Host's departure, when 
Upon Himself be visiting 
The Emperor of Men! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



III. 



EXCEPT the smaller size, no Lives are round, 
These hurry to a sphere, and show, and end. 
The larger, slower grow, and later hang — 
The Summers of Hesperides are long. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



IV. 

FAME is a fickle food 
Upon a shifting plate, 
Whose table once a Guest, but not 
The second time, is set. 
Whose crumbs the crows inspect, 
And with ironic caw 
Flap past it to the Farmer's corn; 
Men eat of it and die. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



THE right to perish might be thought 
An undisputed right, 
Attempt it, and the Universe upon the opposite 
Will concentrate its officers — 
You cannot even die, 
But Nature and Mankind must pause 
To pay you scrutiny. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



VI. 

PERIL as a possession 
Tis good to bear, 
Danger disintegrates satiety; 
There's Basis there 
Begets an awe, 

That searches Human Nature's creases 
As clean as Fire. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



VIL 

WHEN Etna basks and purrs, 
Naples is more afraid 
Than when she shows her Garnet Tooth; 
Security is loud. 



lO THE SINGLE HOUND. 



VIII. 

REVERSE cannot befall that fine Prosperity 
Whose sources are interior. 
As soon Adversity 
A diamond overtake, 
In far Bolivian ground; 
Misfortune hath no implement 
Could mar it, if it found. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. II 



IX. 

To be alive is power, 
Existence in itself, 
Without a further function, 
Omnipotence enough. 

To be alive and Will — 

'Tis able as a God! 

The Further of ourselves be what 

Such being Finitude? 



12 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



X. 



TI/^ITCHCRAFT has not a pedigree, 
^ ^ 'Tis early as our breath, 
And mourners meet it going out 
The moment of our death. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 13 



XI. 

PXHILARATION is the Breeze 
-L' That lifts us from the ground, 
And leaves us in another place 
Whose statement is not found; 
Returns us not, but after time 
We soberly descend, 
A little newer for the term 
Upon enchanted ground. 



14 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XII. 

No romance sold unto, 
Could so enthrall a man 
As the perusal of 
His individual one. 
'Tis fiction's, to dilute 
To plausibility 

Our novel, when 'tis small enough 
To credit, — 'tis n't true! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 1$ 



XIII. 

IF what we could were what we would — 
Criterion be small; 
It is the Ultimate of talk 
The impotence to tell. 



l6 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XIV. 

PERCEPTION of an 
Object costs 
Precise the Object's loss. 
Perception in itself a gain 
Replying to its price; 
The Object Absolute is nought, 
Perception sets ft fair, 
And then upbraids a Perfectness 
That situates so far. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 17 



XV. 

No other can reduce 
Our mortal consequence, 
Like the remembering it be nought 
A period from hence. 
But contemplation for 
Cotemporaneous nought 
Our single competition; 
Jehovah's estimate. 



l8 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XVI. 

THE blunder is to estimate, — 
"Eternity is Then;' 
We say, as of a station. 
Meanwhile he is so near, 
He joins me in my ramble, 
Divides abode with me, 
No friend have I that so persists 
As this Eternity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND, 19 



XVII. 

MY Wheel is in the dark, — 
I cannot see a spoke, 
Yet know its dripping feet 
Go round and round. 

My foot is on the tide — 
An unfrequented road. 
Yet have all roads 
A ''clearing" at the end. 

Some have resigned the Loom, 

Some in the busy tomb 

Find quaint employ, 

Some with new, stately feet 

Pass royal through the gate. 

Flinging the problem back at you and I. 



20 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XVIII. 

THERE is another Loneliness 
That many die without, 
Not want or friend occasions it, 
Or circumstances or lot. 

But nature sometimes, sometimes thought, 

And whoso it befall 

Is richer than could be divulged 

By mortal numeral. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 21 



XIX. 

So gay a flower bereaved the mind 
As if it were a woe, 
Is Beauty an afiiiction, then? 
Tradition ought to know. 



22 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XX. 

GLORY is that bright tragic thing, 
That for an instant 
Means Dominion, 
Warms some poor name 
That never felt the sun, 
Gently replacing 
In oblivion. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 23 



XXI. 

THE missing All prevented me 
From missing minor things. 
If nothing larger than a World's 
Departure from a hinge, 
Or Sun's extinction be observed, 
'Twas not so large that I 
Could lift my forehead from my work 
For curiosity. 



24 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXII. 

HIS mind, of man a secret makes, 
I meet him with a start, 
He carries a circumference 
In which I have no part, 
Or even if I deem I do — 
He otherwise may know. 
Impregnable to inquest, 
However neighborly. 



THE SINGLE HOUND, 25 



XXIII. 

THE suburbs of a secret 
A strategist should keep, 
Better than on a dream intrude 
To scrutinize the sleep. 



26 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXIV. 

THE difference between despair 
And fear, is like the one 
Between the instant of a wreck, 
And when the wreck has been. 

The mind is smooth, — no motion - 
Contented as the eye 
Upon the forehead of a Bust, 
That knows it cannot see. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 27 



XXV. 

THERE is a solitude of space, 
A solitude of sea, 
A solitude of death, but these 
Society shall be. 

Compared with that profounder site, 
That polar privacy, 
A Soul admitted to Itself: 
Finite Infinity. 



28 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXVI. 

THE props assist the house 
Until the house is built, 
And then the props withdraw — 
And adequate, erect, 
The house supports itself; 
Ceasing to recollect 
The auger and the carpenter. 
Just such a retrospect 
Hath the perfected life, 
A past of plank and nail. 
And slowness, — then the scaffolds drop 
Affirming it a soul. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 29 



XXVII. 

THE gleam of an heroic act, 
Such strange illumination — 
The Possible's slow fuse is Ht 
By the Imagination! 



30 THE SINGLE HOUND, 



XXVIII. 

OF Death the sharpest function, 
That, just as we discern, 
The Excellence defies us; 
Securest gathered then 
The fruit perverse to plucking, 
But leaning to the sight 
With the ecstatic limit 
Of unobtained DeHght. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 31 



XXIX. 

DOWN Time's quaint stream 
Without an oar, 
We are enforced to sail, 
Our Port — a secret — 
Our Perchance — a gale. 
What Skipper would 
Incur the risk, 
What Buccaneer would ride, 
Without a surety from the wind 
Or schedule of the tide? 



32 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXX. 

I BET with every Wind that blew, till Nature 
in chagrin 
Employed a Fact to visit me and scuttle my 
Balloon! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 33 



XXXI. 

THE Future never spoke, 
Nor will he, like the Dumb, 
Reveal by sign or syllable 
Of his profound To-come. 
But when the news be ripe, 
Presents it in the Act — 
ForestalHng preparation 
Escape or substitute. 
Indifferent to him 
The Dower as the Doom, 
His ofhce but to execute 
Fate's Telegram to him. 



34 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXXII. 

Two lengths has every day, 
Its absolute extent — 
And area superior 
By hope or heaven lent. 
Eternity will be 
Velocity, or pause, 
At fundamental signals 
From fundamental laws. 
To die, is not to go — 
On doom's consummate chart 
No territory new is staked, 
Remain thou as thou art. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 35 



XXXIII. 

THE Soul's superior instants 
Occur to Her alone, 
When friend and earth's occasion 
Have infinite withdrawn. 

Or she, Herself, ascended 
To too remote a height, 
For lower recognition 
Than Her Omnipotent. 

This mortal aboHtion 
Is seldom, but as fair 
As Apparition — subject 
To autocratic air. 

Eternity's disclosure 
To favorites, a few, 
Of the Colossal substance 
Of immortality. 



36 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXXIV. 

NATURE is what we see, 
The Hill, the Afternoon — 
Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee, 
Nay — Nature is Heaven. 

Nature is what we hear, 
The Bobohnk, the Sea — 
Thunder, the Cricket — 
Nay, — Nature is Harmony. 

Nature is what we know 
But have no art to say, 
So impotent our wisdom is 
To Her simpHcity. 



TEE SINGLE HOUND. 37 



A 



XXXV. 

H, Tenerifife! 



Retreating Mountain! 
Purples of Ages pause for you, 
Sunset reviews her Sapphire Regiment, 
Day drops you her red Adieu ! 

Still, clad in your mail of ices, 
Thigh of granite and thew of steel — 
Heedless, ahke, of pomp or parting, 
Ah, Teneriffe! 

I'm kneeling still. 



38 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXXVI. 

SHE died at play, 
Gambolled away 
Her lease of spotted hours, 
Then sank as gaily as a Turk 
Upon a couch of flowers. 
Her ghost strolled softly o'er the hill 
Yesterday and today. 
Her vestments as the silver fleece, 
Her countenance as spray. 



I 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 39 



XXXVII. 

''1\/rORNING" means ^'Milking" to the 

^^ ^ Farmer, 
Dawn to the Apennines — 
Dice to the Maid. 

*' Morning" means just Chance to the Lover — 
Just Revelation to the Beloved. 
Epicures date a breakfast by it! 
Heroes a battle, 
The Miller a flood. 
Faint-going eyes their lapse 
From sighing. 
Faith, the Experiment of our Lord ! 



40 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XXXVIII. 

A LITTLE madness in the Spring 
Is wholesome even for the King, 
But God be with the Clown, 
Who ponders this tremendous scene — 
This whole experiment of green, 
As if it were his own! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 41 



XXXIX. 

I CAN'T tell you, but you feel it — 
Nor can you tell me, 
Saints with vanished slate and pencil 
Solve our April day. 

Sweeter than a vanished FroHc 
From a vanished Green! 
Swifter than the hoofs of Horsemen 
Round a ledge of Dream ! 

Modest, let us walk among it, 
With our ''faces veiled,'^ 
As they say poHte Archangels 
Do, in meeting God. 

Not for me to prate about it, 
Not for you to say 
To some fashionable Lady — 
"Charming April Day!" 



42 THE SINGLE HOUND. 

Rather Heaven's ''Peter Parley," 
By which, Children — slow — 
To sublimer recitations 
Are prepared to go ! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 43 



I 



I 



XL. 

SOME Days retired from the rest 
In soft distinction lie, 
The Day that a companion came — 
Or was obHged to die. 



44 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XLI. 

LIKE Men and Women shadows walk 
Upon the hills today, 
With here and there a mighty bow, 
Or trailing courtesy 
To Neighbors, doubtless, of their own; 
Not quickened to perceive 
Minuter landscape, as Ourselves 
And Boroughs where we Hve. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 45 



XLII. 

THE butterfly obtains 
But little sympathy, 
Though favorably mentioned 
In Entomology. 
Because he travels freely 
And wears a proper coat, 
The circumspect are certain 
That he is dissolute. 

Had he the homely scutcheon of modest Industry, 
'Twere fitter certifying for Immortality. 



46 THE SINGLE HOUND, 



XLIII. 

"DEAUTY crowds me till I die, 
-■-' Beauty, mercy have on me! 
But if I expire today, 
Let it be in sight of thee. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 47 



XLIV. 

WE spy the Forests and the Hills, 
The tents to Nature's Show, 
Mistake the outside for the in 
And mention what we saw. 

Could Commentators on the sign 
Of Nature's Caravan 
Obtain "admission," as a child, 
Some Wednesday afternoon? 



48 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XLV. 

T NEVER told the buried gold 
-■■ Upon the hill that lies, 
I saw the sun, his plunder done, 
Crouch low to guard his prize. 

He stood as near, as stood you here, 
A pace had been between — 
Did but a snake bisect the brake, 
My life had forfeit been. 

That was a wondrous booty, 
I hope 'twas honest gained — 
Those were the finest ingots 
That ever kissed the spade. 

Whether to keep the secret — 
Whether to reveal — 
Whether, while I ponder 
Kidd may sudden sail — 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 49 

Could a Shrewd advise me 
We might e'en divide — 
Should a Shrewd betray me — 
"Atropos" decide! 



50 THE SIXGLE HOUND. 



XLVI. 

THE largest fire ever known 
Occurs each afternoon, 
Discovered is without surprise, 
Proceeds without concern: 
Consumes, and no report to men, 
An Occidental town, 
Rebuilt another morning 
To be again burned down. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 51 



XLVII. 

BLOOM upon the Mountain, stated, 
Blameless of a name. 
Efflorescence of a Sunset — 
Reproduced, the same. 

Seed, had I, my purple sowing 
Should endow the Day, 
Not a tropic of the twilight 
Show itself away. 

Who for tiUing, to the Mountain 
Come, and disappear — 
Whose be Her renown, or fading, 
Witness, is not here. 

While I state — the solemn petals 
Far as North and East, 
Far as South and West expanding, 
Culminate in rest. 



52 THE SIXGLE HOUND. 

And the Mountain to the Evening 
Fit His countenance, 
Indicating by no muscle 
The Experience. 



TEE SINGLE HOUND. 53 



XLVIII. 

MARCH is the month of expectation, 
The things we do not know, 
The Persons of prognostication 
Are coming now. 

We try to sham becoming firmness, 
But pompous joy 
Betrays us, as his first betrothal 
Betrays a boy. 



54 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XLIX. 

THE Duties of the Wind are few 
To cast the Ships at sea, 
Establish March, 
The Floods escort, 
And usher Liberty. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 55 



L. 



THE Winds drew off 
Like hungry dogs 
Defeated of a bone. 
Through fissures in 
Volcanic cloud 
The yellow lightning shown. 
The trees held up 
Their mangled Hmbs 
Like animals in pain, 
When Nature falls 
Upon herself, 
Beware an Austrian! 



56 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LI. 



I THINK that the root of the Wind is Water, 
It would not sound so deep 
Were it a firmamental product, 
Airs no Oceans keep — 
Mediterranean intonations, 
To a Current's ear 
There is a maritime conviction 
In the atmosphere. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 57 



LII. 



SO, from the" mould, 
Scarlet and gold 
Many a Bulb will rise, 
Hidden away cunningly 
From sagacious eyes. 
So, from cocoon 
Many a Worm 
Leap so Highland gay, 
Peasants like me — 
Peasants like thee, 
Gaze perplexedly. 



58 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LIII. 

THE long sigh of the Frog 
Upon a Summer's day, 
Enacts intoxication 
Upon the revery. 
But his receding swell 
Substantiates a peace, 
That makes the ear inordinate 
For corporal release. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 59 



LIV. 

A CAP of lead across the sky 
Was tight and surly drawn, 
We could not find the mighty Face, 
The Figure was withdrawn. 

A chill came up as from a shaft, 
Our noon became a well, 
A Thunder storm combines the charms 
Of Winter and of Hell. 



6o THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LV. 

I SEND two Sunsets — 
Day and I in competition ran, 
I finished two, and several stars, 
While He was making one. 

His own is ampler — 
But, as I was saying to a friend, 
Mine is the more convenient 
To carry in the hand. 

[Sent with brilliant flowers.] 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 6i 



LVI. 

OF this is Day composed — 
A morning and a noon, 
A Revelry unspeakable 
And then a gay Unknown; 
Whose Pomps allure and spurn 
And dower and deprive, 
And penury for glory 
Remedilessly leave. 



62 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LVII. 

THE Hills erect their purple heads, 
The Rivers lean to see — 
Yet Man has not, of all the throng, 
A curiosity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 63 



LVIII. 

LIGHTLY stepped a yellow star 
To its lofty place, 
Loosed the Moon her silver hat 
From her lustral face. 
All of evening softly Ht 
As an astral hall — 
''Father," I observed to Heaven, 
"You are punctual." 



64 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LIX. 

THE Moon upon her fluent route 
Defiant of a road, 
The stars Etruscan argument, 
Substantiate a God. 
If Aims impel these Astral Ones, 
The Ones allowed to know, 
Know that which makes them as forgot 
As Dawn forgets them now. 



^ 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 6$ 



LX. 

LIKE some old fashioned miracle 
When Summertime is done, 
Seems Summer's recollection 
And the affairs of June. 

As infinite tradition 

As Cinderella's bays, 

Or little John of Lincoln Green, 

Or Bluebeard's galleries. 

Her Bees have a fictitious hum. 
Her Blossoms, hke a dream, 
Elate — until we almost weep 
So plausible they seem. 

Her Memories hke strains — review 
When Orchestra is dumb. 
The Viohn in baize replaced 
And Ear and Heaven numb. 



66 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXI. 



GLOWING is her Bonnet, 
Glowing is her Cheek, 
Glowing is her Kirtle, 
Yet she cannot speak! 

Better, as the Daisy 
From the Summer hill, 
Vanish unrecorded, 
Save by tearful Rill, 

Save by loving Sunrise 
Looking for her face. 
Save by feet unnumbered 
Pausing at the place! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 67 



LXII. 

FOREVER cherished be the tree, 
Whose apple Winter warm, 
Enticed to breakfast from the sky 
Two Gabriels yestermorn; 
They registered in Nature's book 
As Robin — Sire and Son, 
But angels have that modest way 
To screen them from renown. 



68 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXIII. 

THE Ones that disappeared are back, 
The Phoebe and the Crow, 
Precisely as in March is heard 
The curtness of the Jay — 
Be this an Autumn or a Spring? 
My wisdom loses way, 
One side of me the nuts are ripe — 
The other side is May. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 69 



LXIV. 

THOSE final Creatures, — who they are — 
That, faithful to the close, 
Administer her ecstasy, 
But just the Summer knows. 



70 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXV. 

SUINIIMER begins to have the look, 
Peruser of enchanting Book 
Reluctantly, but sure, perceives — 
A gain upon the backward leaves. 

Autumn begins to be inferred 
By millinery of the cloud, 
Or deeper color in the shawl 
That wraps the everlasting hill. 

The eye begins its avarice, 
A meditation chastens speech, 
Some Dyer of a distant tree 
Resumes his gaudy industry. 

Conclusion is the course of all. 
Almost to be perennial, 
And then elude stability 
Recalls to immortality. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 71 



LXVI. 

A PROMPT, executive Bird is the Jay, 
Bold as a Bailiff's hymn, 
Brittle and brief in quality — 
Warrant in every line; 
Sitting a bough like a Brigadier, 
Confident and straight, 
Much is the mien 
Of him in March 
As a Magistrate. 



72 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXVII. 

LIKE brooms of steel 
The Snow and Wind 
Had swept the Winter Street, 
The House was hooked, 
The Sun sent out 
Faint Deputies of heat — 
Where rode the Bird 
The Silence tied 
His ample, plodding Steed, 
The Apple in the cellar snug 
Was all the one that played. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 73 



LXVIII. 

THESE are the days that Reindeer love 
And pranks the Northern star, 
This is the Sun's objective 
And Finland of the year. 



74 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXIX. 

Tj^OLLOW wise Orion 
^ Till you lose your eye, 
Dazzlingly decamping 
He is just as high. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 75 



LXX. 

IN Winter, in my room, 
I came upon a worm, 
Pink, lank, and warm. 
But as he was a worm 
And worms presume, 
Not quite with him at home — 
Secured him by a string 
To something neighboring, 
And went along. 

A trifle afterward 
A thing occurred, 
I'd not beheve it if I heard — 
But state with creeping blood; 
A snake, with mottles rare, 
Surveyed my chamber floor, 
In feature as the worm before, 
But ringed with power. 
The very string 



76 THE SINGLE HOUND. 

With which I tied him, too, 
When he was mean and new, 
That string was there. 

I shrank — ''How fair you are!'* 

Propitiation's claw — 

^'Afraid," he hissed, 

''Of me?" 

"No cordiaHty?" 

He fathomed me. 

Then, to a rhythm sHm 
Secreted in his form, 
As patterns swim, 
Projected him. 

That time I flew. 
Both eyes his way. 
Lest he pursue — 
Nor ever ceased to run, 
Till, in a distant town. 
Towns on from mine — 
I sat me down; 
This was a dream. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 77 



LXXI. 

NOT any sunny tone 
From any fervent zone 
Finds entrance there. 
Better a grave of Balm 
Toward human nature's home, 
And Robins near, 
Than a stupendous Tomb 
Proclaiming to the gloom 
How dead we are. 



78 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXII. 

FOR Death,— or rather 
For the things 'twill buy, 
These put away 
Life's opportunity. 
The things that Death will buy 
Are Room, — Escape 
From Circumstances, 
And a Name. 
How gifts of Life 
With Death's gifts will compare, 
We know not — 
For the rates stop Here. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 79 



LXXIII. 

DROPPED into the 
Ether Acre! 
Wearing the sod gown — 
Bonnet of Everlasting laces 
Brooch frozen on ! 
Horses of blonde — 
And coach of silver, 
Baggage a strapped Pearl! 
Journey of Down 
And whip of Diamond — 
Riding to meet the Earl! 



8o THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXIV. 

THIS quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies, 
And Lads and Girls; 
Was laughter and ability and sighing, 

And frocks and curls. 
This passive place a Summer's nimble mansion, 

Where Bloom and Bees 
Fulfilled their Oriental Circuit, 

Then ceased like these. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 8l 



LXXV. 

TWAS comfort in her dying room 
To hear the living clock, 
A short rehef to have the wind 
Walk boldly up and knock, 
Diversion from the dying theme 
To hear the children play, 
But wrong, the mere 
That these could live, — 
And This of ours must die ! 



82 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXVI. 

TOO cold is this 
To warm with sun, 
Too stiff to bended be, 
To joint this agate were a feat 
Outstaring masonry. 
How went the agile kernel out — 
Contusion of the husk, 
Nor rip, nor wrinkle indicate, — 
But just an Asterisk. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 83 



LXXVII. 

I WATCHED her face to see which way 
She took the awful news, 
Whether she died before she heard — 
Or in protracted bruise 
Remained a few short years with us, 
Each heavier than the last — 
A further afternoon to fail, 
As Flower at fall of Frost. 



84 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXVIIL 

^ODAY or this noon 
-■- She dwelt so close, 
I almost touched her; 
Tonight she lies 
Past neighborhood — 
And bough and steeple — 
Now past surmise. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 85 



LXXIX. 

I SEE thee better in the dark, 
I do not need a light. 
The love of thee a prism be 
Excelling violet. 

I see thee better for the years 
That hunch themselves between, 
The miner's lamp sufficient be 
To nulHfy the mine. 

And in the grave I see thee best — 
Its Httle panels be 
A-glow, all ruddy with the light 
I held so high for thee! 

What need of day to those whose dark 
Hath so surpassing sun, 
It seem it be continually 
At the meridian? 



86 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXX. 

LOW at my problem bending, 
Another problem comes, 
Larger than mine, serener. 
Involving statelier sums; 
I check my busy pencil. 
My ciphers slip away, 
Wherefore, my baffled fingers, 
Time Eternity? 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 87 



LXXXI. 



TF pain for peace prepares, 
-*- Lo the "Augustan" years 

Our feet await! 



If Springs from Winter rise, 
Can the Anemone's 
Be reckoned up? 

If night stands first, then noon, 
To gird us for the sun, 
What gaze — 

When, from a thousand skies. 
On our developed eyes 
Noons blaze! 



88 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXXII. 

I FIT for them, 
I seek the dark till I am thorough fit. 
The labor is a solemn one, 
With this sufficient sweet — 
That abstinence as mine produce 
A purer good for them, 
If I succeed, — 
If not, I had 
The transport of the Aim. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 89 



LXXXIII. 

NOT one by Heaven defrauded stay, 
Although He seem to steal, 
He restitutes in some sweet way. 
Secreted in His will. 



go THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXXIV. 

THE feet of people walking home 
In gayer sandals go, 
The Crocus, till she rises. 
The Vassal of the Snow — 
The lips at Hallelujah! 
Long years of practice bore, 
Till bye and bye these Bargemen 
Walked singing on the shore. 

Pearls are the Diver's farthings 
Extorted from the Sea, 
Pinions the Seraph's wagon, 
Pedestrians once, as we — 
Night is the morning's canvas, 
Larceny, legacy, 
Death but our rapt attention 
To immortahty. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 91 

My jSgures fail to tell me 
How far the village lies, 
Whose Peasants are the angels, 
Whose Cantons dot the skies. 
My Classics veil their faces. 
My Faith that dark adores, 
Which from its solemn Abbeys 
Such resurrection pours! 



92 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXXV. 

WE should not mind so small a flower, 
Except it quiet bring 
Our little garden that we lost 
Back to the lawn again. 
So spicy her Carnations red, 
So drunken reel her Bees, 
So silver steal a hundred Flutes 
From out a hundred trees, 
That whoso sees this httle flower. 
By faith may clear behold 
The BoboHnks around the throne. 
And DandeHons gold. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 93 



LXXXVI. 

TO the staunch Dust we safe commit thee; 
Tongue if it hath, inviolate to thee — 
Silence denote and Sanctity enforce thee, 
Passenger of Inl&nity! 



94 THE S7XGLE HOUND. 



LXXXVII. 

HER ''Last Poems"— 
Poets ended, 
Silver perished with her tongue, 
Not on record bubbled other 
Flute, or Woman, so divine; 
Not unto its Summer morning 
Robin uttered half the tune — 
Gushed too free for the adoring, 
From the Anglo-Florentine. 
Late the praise — 
'Tis dull conferring 
On a Head too high to crown, 
Diadem or Ducal showing, 
Be its Grave sufficient sign. 
Yet if we, no Poet's kinsman. 
Suffocate with easy woe. 
What and if ourself a Bridegroom, 
Put Her down, in Italy? 

[Written after the death of Mrs. Browning in 1861.] 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 95 



LXXXVIII. 

IMMURED in Heaven ! What a Cell ! 
Let every bondage be, 
Thou Sweetest of the Universe, 
Like that which ravished thee ! 



96 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



LXXXIX. 

I'M thinking of that other morn, 
When Cerements let go, 
And Creatures clad in Victory 
Go up in two by two! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 97 



xc. 

THE overtakelessness of those 
Who have accompHshed Death, 
Majestic is to me beyond 
The majesties of Earth. 

The soul her ''not at Home" 
Inscribes upon the flesh, 
And takes her fair aerial gait 
Beyond the hope of touch. 



98 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XCI. 

THE Look of Thee, what is it like? 
Hast thou a hand or foot, 
Or mansion of Identity, 
And what is thy Pursuit? 

Thy fellows, — are they Realms or Themes? 

Hast thou Dehght or Fear 

Or Longing, — and is that for us 

Or values more severe? 

Let change transfuse all other traits, 
Enact all other blame. 
But deign this least certificate — 
That thou shalt be the same. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 99 



XCII. 

THE Devil, had he fidelity, ' 
Would be the finest friend 
Because he has ability, 
But Devils cannot mend. 
Perfidy is the virtue 
That would he but resign, — 
The Devil, so amended, 
Were durably divine. 



lOO THE SINGLE HOUND. 



p 



XCIII. 

APA above! 



Regard a Mouse 
O 'erpowered by the Cat; 
Reserve within thy kingdom 
A ''mansion" for the Rat! 

Snug in seraphic cupboards 
To nibble all the day, 
While unsuspecting cycles 
Wheel pompously away. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. lOl 



XCIV. 

NOT when we know 
The Power accosts, 
The garment of Surprise 
Was all our timid Mother wore 
At Home, in Paradise. 



I02 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



xcv. 

ELIJAH'S wagon knew no thill, 
Was innocent of wheel, 
EKjah's horses as unique 
As was his vehicle. 
Elijah's journey to portray, 
Expire with him the skill, 
Who justified Elijah, 
In feats inscrutable. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 103 



XCVI. 



REMEMBER me," implored the Thief 
Oh magnanimity! 
''My Visitor in Paradise 
I give thee Guaranty." 

That courtesy will fair remain, 
When the dehght is dust, 
With which we cite this mightiest case 
Of compensated Trust. 

Of All, we are allowed to hope, 

But Affidavit stands 

That this was due, where some, we fear, 

Are unexpected friends. 



I04 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XCVII. 

To this apartment deep 
No ribaldry may creep; 
Untroubled this abode 
By any man but God. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 105 

XCVIII. 

"QOWN in dishonor?'' 

»v5 Ah! Indeed! 
May this dishonor be? 
If I were half so fine myself, 
I'd notice nobody! 

*'Sown in corruption?" 
By no means! 
Apostle is askew; 
Corinthians i. 15, narrates 
A circumstance or two! 



io6 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



XCIX. 

WHO is it seeks my pillow nights? 
With plain inspecting face, 
"Did you, or did you not?" to ask, 
'Tis Conscience, childhood's nurse. 

With martial hand she strokes the hair 
Upon my wincing head, 
*'A11 rogues shall have their part in" — 
What — 

The Phosphorus of God. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 107 



c. 



HIS Cheek is his Biographer — 
As long as he can blush, 
Perdition is Opprobrium; 
Past that, he sins in peace. 

Thief 



lo8 THE SINGLE IIOUXD. 



CI. 

HEAVENLY Father," take to thee 
The supreme iniquity, 
Fashioned by thy candid hand 
In a moment contraband. 
Though to trust us seem to us 
More respectful — "we are dust." 
We apologize to Thee 
For Thine own Duplicity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 109 



CII. 

^X^HE sweets of Pillage can be known 
-■" To no one but the Thief, 
Compassion for Integrity 
Is his divinest Grief. 



no THE SIX CLE HOUND. 



cm. 

A LITTLE over Jordan, 
As Genesis record, 
An Angel and a Wrestler 
Did wrestle long and hard. 

Till, morning touching mountain, 
And Jacob waxing strong, 
The Angel begged peiTnission 
To breakfast and return. 

Not so, quoth wily Jacob 
And girt his loins anew, 
''Until thou bless me, stranger!" 
The which acceded to: 

Light swung the silver fleeces 
Peniel hills among, 
And the astonished Wrestler 
Found he had worsted God ! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. iii 



CIV. 



DUST is the only secret, 
Death the only one 
You cannot find out all about 
In his native town: 
Nobody knew his father, 
Never was a boy, 
Hadn't any playmates 
Or early history. 

Industrious, laconic, 
Punctual, sedate, 
Bolder than a Brigand, 
Swifter than a Fleet, 
Builds like a bird too, 
Christ robs the nest — 
Robin after robin 
Smuggled to rest! 



112 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



cv. 

AMBITION cannot find him, 
Affection doesn't know 
How many leagues of Nowhere 
Lie between them now. 
Yesterday undistinguished — 
Eminent today. 
For our mutual honor — 
Immortality! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 113 



CVI. 

EDEN is that old fashioned House 
We dwell in every day, 
Without suspecting our abode 
Until we drive away. 
How fair, on looking back, the Day 
We sauntered from the door, 
Unconscious our returning 
Discover it no more. 



114 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CVII. 

CANDOR, my tepid Friend, 
Come not to play with me! 
The Myrrhs and Mochas of the Mind 
Are its Iniquity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 115 



CVIII. 

SPEECH is a sympton of affection, 
And Silence one, 
The perfectest communication 
Is heard of none — 
Exists and its endorsement 
Is had within — 
Behold! said the Apostle, 
Yet had not seen. 



Ii6 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CIX. 

WHO were '^the Father and the Son" 
We pondered when a child, 
And what had they to do with us — 
And when portentous told 
With inference appalling, 
By Childhood fortified, 
We thought, ''at least they are no worse 
Than they have been described." 

Who are ''the Father and the Son" — 

Did we demand today, 

"The Father and the Son" himself 

Would doubtless specify, 

But had they the felicity 

When we desired to know, 

We better Friends had been, perhaps, 

Than time ensue to be. 

We start, to learn that we beheve 
But once, entirely — 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 117 

Belief, it does not fit so well 

When altered frequently. 

We blush, that Heaven if we achieve, 

Event ineffable — 

We shall have shunned, until ashamed 

To own the Miracle. 



Ii8 TEE SINGLE HOUND. 



ex. 

THAT Love is all there is, 
Is all we know of Love; 
It is enough, the freight should be 
Proportioned to the groove. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 119 



CXI. 

THE luxury to apprehend 
The luxury 'twould be 
To look at thee a single time, 
An Epicure of me, 
In whatsoever Presence, makes, 
Till, for a further food 
I scarcely recollect to starve. 
So first am I supplied. 
The luxury to meditate 
The luxury it was 
To banquet on thy Countenance, 
A sumptuousness bestows 
On plainer days. 
Whose table, far as 
Certainty can see, 
Is laden with a single crumb — 
The consciousness of Thee. 



I20 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXII. 

THE Sea said *Xome" to the Brook, 
The Brook said ''Let me grow!" 
The Sea said "Then you will be a Sea — 
I want a brook, Come now!" 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 121 



CXIII. 

ALL I may, if small, 
Do it not display 
Larger for its Totalness? 
'Tis economy 
To bestow a world 
And withhold a star, 
Utmost is munificence; 
Less, though larger, Poor. 



122 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXIV. 

LOVE reckons by itself alone, 
"As large as I" relate the Sun 
To one who never felt it blaze, 
Itself is all the hke it has. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 123 



cxv. 

THE inundation of the Spring 
Submerges every soul, 
It sweeps the tenement away 
But leaves the water whole. 
In which the Soul, at first alarmed, 
Seeks furtive for its shore, 
But acclimated, gropes no more 
For that Peninsular. 



124 TEE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXVI. 

No Autumn's intercepting chill 
Appalls this Tropic Breast, 
But African exuberance 
And Asiatic rest. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 125 



CXVII. 

VOLCANOES be in Sicily 
And South America, 
I judge from my geography. 
Volcanoes nearer here, 
A lava step, at any time, 
Am I inclined to climb, 
A crater I may contemplate, 
Vesuvius at home. 



126 THE si:; CLE HOUND. 



CXVIII. 

DISTANCE is not the realm of Fox, 
Nor by relay as Bird; 
Abated, Distance is until 
Thyself, Beloved! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 127 



CXIX. 

THE treason of an accent 
Might vilify the Joy — 
To breathe, — corrode the rapture 
Of Sanctity to be. 



128 THE SIX CLE HOUND. 



cxx. 

How destitute is he 
Whose Gold is firm, 
Who finds it every time, 
The small stale sum — 
When Love, with but a pence 
Will so display. 
As is a disrespect to India! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 129 



CXXI. 

CRISIS is sweet and, set the Heart 
Upon the hither side, 
Has dowers of prospective 
Surrendered by the Tried. 
Inquire of the closing Rose 
Which Rapture she preferred, 
And she will tell you, sighing, 
The transport of the Bud. 



I30 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXII. 

To tell the beauty would decrease, 
To state the Spell demean, 
There is a syllableless sea 
Of which it is the sign. 

My will endeavours for its word 
And fails, but entertains 
A rapture as of legacies — 
Of introspective mines. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 131 



CXXIII. 

To love thee, year by year, 
May less appear 
Than sacrifice and cease. 
However, Dear, 
Forever might be short 
I thought, to show. 
And so I pieced it with a flower now. 



132 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXIV. 



I SHOWED her heights she never saw — 
''Would'st cHmb?" I said, 
She said' ^ Not so" — 
''With me?" I said, ''With me?" 
I showed her secrets 
Morning's nest. 

The rope that Nights were put across — 
And now, "Would'st have me for a Guest?" 
She could not find her yes — 
And then, I brake my Hfe, and Lo! 
A Hght for her, did solemn glow, 
The larger, as her face withdrew — 
And could she, further, "No?" 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 133 



cxxv. 

ON my volcano grows the grass, 
A meditative spot, 
An area for a bird to choose 
Would be the general thought. 

How red the fire reeks below, 
How insecure the sod — 
Did I disclose, would populate 
With awe my solitude. 



134 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXVI. 

IF I could tell how glad I was, 
I should not be so glad, 
But when I cannot make the Force 
Nor mould it into word, 
I know it is a sign 
That new Dilemma be 
From mathematics further off, 
Than from Eternity. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 



135 



CXXVII. 

HER Grace is all she has, 
And that, so vast displays, 
One Art, to recognize, must be, 
Another Art to praise. 



136 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXVIII. 

No matter where the Saints abide, 
They make their circuit fair; 
Behold how great a Firmament 
Accompanies a star ! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 137 



CXXIX. 

To see her is a picture, 
To hear her is a tune, 
To know her an intemperance 
As innocent as June; 
By which to be undone 
Is dearer than Redemption — 
Which never to receive, 
Makes mockery of melody 
It might have been to live. 



138 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



cxxx. 

So set its sun in thee, 
What day is dark to me 
What distance far, 
So I the ships may see 
That touch how seldomly 
Thy shore? 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 139 



CXXXI. 

HAD this one day not been, 
Or could it cease to be - 
How smitten, how superfluous 
Were every other day! 

Lest Love should value less 
What Loss would value more, 
Had it the stricken privilege — 
It cherishes before. 



I40 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXXII. 

THAT she forgot me was the least, 
I felt it second pain, 
That I was worthy to forget 
Was most I thought upon. 

Faithful, was all that I could boast, 
But Constancy became, 
To her, by her innominate, 
A something Uke a shame. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 141 



CXXXIII. 

^ I ^HE incidents of Love 

-*- Are more than its Events, 
Investments best expositor 
Is the minute per cents. 



142 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXXIV. 

JUST so, Jesus raps — He does not weary — 
Last at the knocker and first at the bell, 
Then on divinest tiptoe standing 
Might He out-spy the lady's soul. 
When He retires, chilled and weary — 
It will be ample time for me; 
Patient, upon the steps, until then — 
Heart, I am knocking low at Thee! 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 143 



cxxxv. 

SAFE Despair it is that raves, 
Agony is frugal, 
Puts itself severe away 
For its own perusal. 

Garrisoned no Soul can be 
In the front of Trouble, 
Love is one, not aggregate, 
Nor is D3dng double. 



144 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXXVI. 

THE Face we choose to miss, 
Be it but for a day — 
As absent as a hundred years 
When it has rode away. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 145 



CXXXVII. 

OF so divine a loss 
We enter but the gain, 
Indemnity for loneliness 
That such a bliss has been. 



146 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXXXVIII. 

THE healed Heart shows its shallow scar 
With confidential moan, 
Not mended by Mortality 
Are fabrics truly torn. 
To go its convalescent way 
So shameless is to see, 
More genuine were Perfidy 
Than such FideHty. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 147 



CXXXIX. 

To pile like Thunder to its close, 
Then crumble grand away, 
While everything created hid — 
This would be Poetry : 
Or Love, — the two coeval came — 
We both and neither prove, 
Experience either, and consume — 
For none see God and live. 



148 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXL. 

THE Stars are old, that stood for me 
The West a little worn, 
Yet newer glows the only Gold 
I ever cared to earn — 
Presuming on that lone result 
Her infinite disdain, 
But vanquished her with my defeat, 
'Twas Victory was slain. 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 149 



CXLI. 

ALL circumstances are the frame 
In which His Face is set, 
All Latitudes exist for His 
Sufficient continent. 

The hght His Action and the dark 
The Leisure of His Will, 
In Him Existence serve, or set 
A force illegible. 



I50 THE SINGLE HOUND. 



CXLIL 

I DID not reach thee, 
But my feet slip nearer every day; 
Three Rivers and a Hill to cross, 
One Desert and a Sea — 
I shall not count the journey one 
When I am telHng thee. 

Two deserts — but the year is cold 
So that will help the sand — 
One desert crossed, the second one 
Will feel as cool as land. 
Sahara is too Httle price 
To pay for thy Right hand ! 

The sea comes last. Step merry, feet! 
So short have we to go 
To play together we are prone, 
But we must labor now, 



THE SINGLE HOUND. 151 

The last shall be the lightest load 
That we have had to draw. 

The Sun goes crooked — that is night — 

Before he makes the bend 

We must have passed the middle sea, 

Almost we wish the end 

Were further off — too great it seems 

So near the Whole to stand. 

We step Kke plush, we stand Hke snow — 

The waters murmur now, 

Three rivers and the hill are passed, 

Two deserts and the sea! 

Now Death usurps my premium 

And gets the look at Thee. 



t 



?0Q 






^^*o^ 'C^ \- ^' V: '"/ -^ A^-^ ^^ "/ C;^ V ^"^„ 









^ ■>:^"^. ^% ^^ 

.0 O 















J- a' 



-oo^ - "^ ^' 



f :-,"'.. ."- ^i 









\ 



8 * <^ 












o 



^^''^ 



^^.. c^^ 









-x^' 



















^^^. 












V>^ 



* 8 1 > 



cf^' 



<=,^- 






,^^' '^/>- 



o 

'^''^.'^o. 



J- i- « 



.\ 









